BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings volleyball team will be the first team to play under the new lights in front of a crowd sitting in brand new seats installed in Alterowitz Gymnasium. The Yellowjackets will christen the new renovations by hosting Saint Martin's University and Western Oregon University in the coming week after having played their first 11 matches of the 2011 season on the road.
The Saints of SMU will travel to Billings on Thursday, Sept. 22 for a 7 p.m. match before the Wolves of WOU come prowling into town on Saturday, Sept. 24 also at 7 p.m.
The Yellowjackets enter this week's matches 6-5 overall and are currently 0-2 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play after dropping two league matches last week to Northwest Nazarene (3-1) and Central Washington (3-0).
Senior
Brooke Tolman is currently riding a streak of six matches in a row where she has recorded a double-double. Against NNU, Tolman recorded 36 assists and 26 digs before tallying 15 assists and 12 digs against CWU.
Krista Norris recorded a double-double of her own to lead MSUB's attack against the Crusaders of NNU with 13 kills and 12 digs while
Taylor Adams registered seven kills for a .227 attack percentage in the match.
The Yellowjackets have seen their share of struggles recently but are hoping the home-court advantage will help to alleviate those pains. As a team, MSUB is currently holding its opponents to a .176 attack percentage while holding a slight advantage over their opposition at the net with 1.8 blocks per set (75 total) to their opponents' 1.7 blocks per set (71 total).
The Saints are currently 3-5 overall and 2-1 in the GNAC with wins over the University of Alaska Fairbanks (3-0) and Simon Fraser (3-0) earlier this season. The win over the Clan of Simon Fraser snapped a two-match losing streak for the Saints.
The Wolves of WOU enter Saturday's match with a 4-4 overall record in 2011 and are currently 3-1 in the GNAC having lost to Western Washington University Saturday night to end their four-match winning streak.
After the two home matches, the Yellowjackets will hit the road again for a trip to Alaska to challenge both Universities of Alaska in Fairbanks and Anchorage on Thursday, Sept. 29 and Saturday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. each night respectively.
